One of the traditions established with the national parks system is the notion that they should remain a place for the common man to enjoy. You don’t have to be rich to experience some of the most breathtaking places on the planet.
And that’s how the parks should remain.
Initially, we had concern about a National Park Service plan to raise entry fees at 131 of the 401 properties it manages, including Rocky Mountain National Park.
But if the proposed increases reported by The Denver Post’s Jason Blevins are enacted, they won’t be burdensome.
Entry fees at Rocky Mountain National Park, which now charges $10 per person for seven days, would increase 50 percent. At Great Sand Dunes National Park, which charges $3 per person for a week, the charge would increase 150 percent.
Those are not huge fees considering the breathtaking beauty one experiences in these parks. And given the federal budget cuts and maintenance backlogs at parks, it’s clear the service is having difficulty paying for park needs. Some 90 percent of paved road surfaces in the parks system are in “fair” or “poor” condition, according to the park service.
The National Parks Conservation Association says four years of budget cuts have resulted in an 8 percent reduction in parks’ operating budgets. The construction account, the association says, has been cut in half.
So it’s not surprising that park managers would look to increase fees, last raised in 2008. And yet, there must be a commitment to keeping entry fees affordable.
Frederick Olmsted, who designed many of the nation’s most well-known parks, wrote in 1865 that the choicest scenes were being monopolized by the very rich. Unless government interceded, he argued, “all places favorable in scenery to the recreation of the mind and body will be closed against the mass of the people.”
Though the forces at work today may be different, the challenge of safeguarding access remains the same.
